Don’t you hate it when someone gets murdered on your honeymoon? To make matters worse, Tesla’s brand new husband gets accused of the crime in The Spare Man, a brilliant sci-fi mystery thriller from Mary Robinette Kowal, which came out last year.
Heiress and disgraced scientist Tesla Crane is looking forward to some luxurious peace and quiet on her honeymoon cruise to Mars with her retired detective husband, Shal. They’ve decided to travel under assumed names so that they can enjoy the top-class bars and shipboard entertainment without having to endure the suffocating admiration of Tesla’s fans or the whispered gossip of her critics. However, any hope of cozy anonymity collapses less than a week into their trip when someone is stabbed to death outside of their stateroom … and Shal is the prime suspect. With the ship’s security seemingly dead set on pinning the crime on her husband, Tesla will have to find the real killer herself so that they can return to enjoying their marital bliss. But when the killer strikes again, Tesla realizes that she and Shal may be in danger of more than just spending their honeymoon in a holding cell.
One of the things that stood out to me about The Spare Man is its depiction of a disabled protagonist. Tesla suffered a severe spinal injury during an accident several years before the events of this book take place. As a result, she experiences chronic pain which can be exacerbated by physical activity and sometimes requires her to use mobility aids. In addition to the physical damage to her body, Tesla’s accident also left her with PTSD and certain sights and sounds can throw her into intense flashbacks and panic attacks. Though Tesla often expresses frustration with these physical and emotional challenges, her disabilities do not prevent her from investigating the murder with far more diligence and vigor than the ship’s security staff. In fact, several of the tools that Tesla uses to manage her disabilities turn out to be useful investigative tools, as well. For example, there’s her service dog Gimlet—an adorable little Westie and probably my favorite character in the book. Gimlet is trained to warn Tesla when she is stressing her body too much or sliding toward a panic attack. But just as important as his medical training is his ability to endear himself to everyone around him. Tesla very intentionally uses Gimlet to turn enemies into friends, to warm up potential suspects so she can ask them questions, and to get her into places where she shouldn’t be. Another example is the grounding technique that Tesla uses to manage her PTSD—naming five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, etc… While slowing down and focusing on her environment does a great job of pulling Tesla out of a panic attack, it also helps her to notice small clues she otherwise would not have spotted. While I can’t speak for disabled readers, I felt that this book did an excellent job with a detailed and nuanced depiction of disability while celebrating and working to destigmatize some of the tools used to manage it.
My absolute favorite part of The Spare Man, though, is its focus on decadent cocktails. There is a cocktail recipe at the head of each chapter—a mix of old-school classics and new cocktails invented for this book, a disproportionate amount of them featuring absinthe (my favorite liquor) and served in coupe glasses. Each cocktail is either thematically or literally related to the events of the chapter (Tesla and Shal indulge frequently), and there are even a series of non-alcoholic recipes paired with the chapters that follow after a character is instructed to avoid alcohol by the ship’s medical staff. At the end of the book, sandwiched between the “About the Science” and “About the Author” sections is an “About the Cocktails” section, which includes a brief glossary and gives some excellent general advice on preparing cocktails (such as when to shake vs. stir) in addition to explaining a bit about the recipes the author invented and how to invent your own. I’m excited to try some of the cocktails from the book, especially one in particular called The Obituary, which my friend and local cocktail expert Garret Richard mentioned was once the house drink of a secret society in New Orleans. While I zoomed through this book too quickly to pause and mix myself a drink, I think savoring each chapter with its cocktail pairing sounds like a particularly decadent experience—perhaps on a reread!
If you love indulgent beverages, creative sci-fi, clever writing, and disability rep, I highly recommend checking out The Spare Man. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer. Or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve read it, let me know what you think in the comments (but please avoid spoiling the mystery)!